Primarily a collection of news links about all 10 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.

-- Roll out the red carpet for VU's women's basketball team. The Crusaders knocked off Purdue for the first time, then nearly doubled their pleasure against Notre Dame less than 72 hours later. Both opponents were ranked at the time, making the memorable week in December the most significant in Coach Keith Freeman's 15 years at the helm.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Butler (Horizon League): Graduating four-fifths of the starting lineup from a round of 32 team won't inspire many to expect a repeat performance. But the Bulldogs are back.

Despite a tough nonconference schedule, Matt Howard and Butler are off to a strong start.

Returnee forward Matt Howard, now a sophomore, anchors a group of youngsters who have achieved a 10-1 record despite playing one of the nation's toughest schedules. Remember names like Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward. They're freshmen, but they're learning how to win very early in their careers -- and Butler's giant nine-point win over Xavier on Tuesday shows that it is already ready for big W's....What you might not have realized

The Horizon League is really good. Retooled Butler is just a three-point loss to Ohio State from perfection. Illinois-Chicago beat Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech on the road. Cleveland State's stock rose when the Vikings shocked Syracuse, but it went up even higher after Syracuse turned around and beat Memphis five days later. If the cards fall right in conference play, two tourney bids aren't out of the question.

Munster grad Aric Van Weelden has started the last three games for Loyola and the Ramblers are 3-0. In three games since moving into the starting lineup, the junior guard is averaging 3.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.

In an 89-65 win over SIU-Edwardsville on Dec. 22, Van Weelden had four points, four rebounds and three assists.

Tyler Hansbrough scored 25 points and the Tar Heels overcame a sluggish start Saturday before rolling to an 85-63 victory over Valparaiso.

Hansbrough, who became North Carolina's career scoring leader Thursday night in a victory over Evansville, sparked runs at the end of the first half and beginning of the second.

North Carolina (11-0) won by double figures for the 11th straight game, tying a school record also held by the 1992-93 team that won the national championship.

Valparaiso (3-7) was facing the No. 1 team for the fifth straight season and the seventh time in school history. The Crusaders are now 0-7 in those games.

Hansbrough scored eight straight points -- two free throws, a layup after a steal, a slam and a jumper -- to get the Tar Heels started on a 12-0 run late in the first half that built a 38-25 lead. They were ahead 41-31 at the half.

North Carolina then scored the first nine points of the second half to pull away from the scrappy Crusaders in the game at the United Center.

North Carolina has won 37 straight regular-season games against non-conference opponents. They'll go for 38 when they host Rutgers this Sunday in the Smith Center.

Bad Santas. Portland St. 77, Gonzaga 70. Santa Claus made an early visit to the environs of Cincinnati, OH, and Spokane, WA, tonight, but instead of leaving toys and treats for the tots of Xavier and Gonzaga Universities, respectively, he left a couple of lumps of coal and another undisclosed brownish substance in their stockings. AP #7 Gonzaga and AP # 14 Xavier, both coming off of devastating Saturday losses (in different ways), were unable to shake off their hangovers from losses to UConn and Duke and instead dropped home games tonight that sent shocks throughout mid-major America. The more surprising upset of the two took place out west, where Gonzaga was thoroughly outplayed by the scrappier, guttier Portland St. Vikings. PSU was led by 5′6 Jeremiah Dominguez, who hit seven threes for a sick line of 25/6/5 assts. Yes, a guy shorter than you outrebounded all but Gonzaga’s 6′11 Austin Daye (9 boards) and 6′10 Josh Heytvelt (8) in this game. Portland St., who has losses to Hampton and Cal Poly on its resume, never wavered in the face of the superior athleticism and size of Gonzaga. GU, should have come out ready to eat glass in this one, but instead they allowed their heartbreaking loss to UConn over the weekend to mentally affect their play tonight. Would that have happened to UNC? Pitt? Duke? UCLA? Gonzaga needs to get tougher mentally. Butler 74, Xavier 65. Wasn’t Butler supposed to be rebuilding this year? Amazingly, eight of Brad Stevens’ top nine Bulldogs are freshmen and sophomores, whereas XU starts two juniors and one senior. So how is it that Butler was able to come into the Cintas Center and earn a victory in a location where Xavier had won its last fifteen games? Standard Butler-issue hardnosed defense and poise. Butler was able to keep Xavier under control from three (7-24) while also winning the battle of ball control (-7 turnovers) in a tough game that Xavier will regret losing come March. Matt Howard (19/14) and Gordon Hayward (19/10) both provided double-doubles, but the key stat of the game may have been Xavier’s 12-22 from the line. The 198th best FT-shooting team in America didn’t help their cause tonight, several times failing to convert both FT opportunities down the stretch. If Gonzaga and Xavier want to be taken seriously as “high mids” vying for the Final Four, they cannot afford to lose home games like these.